


Getting On With The Job

by fredbassett



Series: Stephen/Ryan pre-series [3]
Category: Primeval
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-21
Updated: 2016-10-21
Packaged: 2018-08-23 18:50:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,089
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8338783
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fredbassett/pseuds/fredbassett
Summary: Ryan wonders quite what sort of crazy caper he's got landed with.





	

Ryan chucked his Bergen on the bed.

The rented flat he’d been given the use of was hardly luxurious, but he’d slept in far worse places and at least it was handy for the Central Metropolitan University. The academics he was riding shotgun for lived in the same area, so if there was a call-out, Ryan could be with them quickly.

The main problem was going to be getting the rest of the team together quickly. The guys assigned to him for this crazy caper were bunking down in Aldershot Garrison at the moment, and even at illegal speeds and in decent traffic they were still 35 minutes away from him. But he’d been told to stick close to Cutter and co, so that’s what he was doing. He could hardly have a bunch of squaddies, armed to the teeth, hanging around a residential area, so he was just going to have to make the best of a bad job for now, and hope his request for a full Special Forces team would be approved sooner rather than later.

The soldiers currently assigned to the project hadn’t exactly covered themselves in glory the previous evening, and two of them were now in hospital as a result. They’d frozen in shock when something the size of a rhino sporting the attitude of a pit-bull with a wasp up its arse had come charging at them in the Forest of Dean. One of them had just stared at it and the other had fired wide, both of them too spooked to think straight.

He didn’t entirely blame either of them, dinosaurs weren’t exactly covered in basic training, but on this job there was no room for fuck-ups. His bosses back at Credenhill had been sympathetic to his initial report, even taking the mention of dinosaurs and rips in time in their stride. It was plain as a bloody pikestaff that weird shit like this couldn’t be left in the hands of the bunch that had been thrown together in a hurry when the Home Office had got on the blower demanding some back-up.

The civilian team were an odd bunch, to say the least. Claudia Brown, the woman acting as liaison for the Home Office, seemed to have her head screwed on all right, which was something, but as far as he could tell she was pretty low down in the pecking order. Her boss, Sir James Lester, was slightly higher up the greasy pole. He known in the trade as a hard bastard and if he’d been put on the job it meant that the problem was definitely being taken seriously. Ryan had been in special ops for long enough to take most things in his stride, but he had to admit that rips in time were a new one on him. If he hadn’t seen it for himself, he would have been certain someone was arsing around. But the landscape on the other side of the thing Cutter called an anomaly had been real enough, as had the skeleton they’d found.

Cutter wasn’t going to be the easiest man to work with, but to Ryan’s surprise, the man had taken being thumped a couple of times in reasonably good part. That part of Ryan’s report had caused a few raised eyebrows back at base, but as he had rightly pointed out, if they’d wanted subtlety, they should have assigned someone else to the job. He had a rep for getting things done, and occasionally that meant resorting to less orthodox methods. He’d been told to bring Cutter back, and that was exactly what he’d done.

The two younger members of the team were pretty much an unknown quantity so far. The girl seemed sensible enough, although it wasn’t clear yet quite what she was going to bring to the party. As for the lad, he might have an encyclopaedic knowledge of dinosaurs, but he looked like he would trip over his own feet given half a chance.

The one he rated most so far was Cutter’s sidekick, Stephen Hart. From what Ryan had seen, the guy was calm in a crisis, decisive and a fucking good shot. He was also said to be an excellent tracker, which is one thing they were going to need if they had any more unwelcome visitors. The phrase tall, dark and handsome could have been coined for Hart, but the man was certainly more than just a pretty face.

Ryan wandered into the tiny kitchen and opened the fridge. A pint of milk and a small block of processed cheese stared back at him. He shut the door in disgust. What he really wanted was a decent breakfast and about a pint of tea. He was still too wired from the events of the previous day and night to get any sleep, and he was in desperate need of something decent to eat.

Before splitting up from the others in the early hours of the morning, Ryan had insisted on taking everyone’s mobile numbers, just in case they needed to meet up somewhere in a hurry. He wondered about contacting Cutter or Hart and suggesting they met up somewhere for a chat, maybe to lay down some ground rules for the team, but something told him Cutter wouldn’t take too well to that. The man was used to being the one who called the shots, that much was obvious. But it looked like he didn’t hold a grudge, which was good.

Ryan took a quick shower and changed into civvies before going in search of breakfast. He’d just pulled on a jacket when his phone buzzed. Looking down at the screen he saw that the caller was Stephen Hart.

With a slight smile on his face, Ryan accepted the call.

“Cutter and I are going to get some breakfast,” Hart said. “We wondered if you wanted to join us. There’s a decent café on campus.”

“Sounds good. Where do I find you?”

“Ask anyone to direct you to the Cup and Saucer, They do the best fried breakfast in the area. See you there in 15 minutes?”

“OK, see you then.” Ryan, disconnected the call and dropped the phone back in his pocket. That was a good start. If he could establish decent relations Cutter and his assistant, there was an excellent chance he could turn this operation into something better than a total cluster-fuck.

Now all he needed was his own team on the job and things would definitely be looking up.


End file.
